My son's ringworm won't go away

My five year-old son has had ringworm for the last nine weeks and despite having used the creams as directed by our G.P. the infection remains. The ar...

Question

My five year-old son has had ringworm for the last nine weeks and despite having used the creams as directed by our G.P. the infection remains. The area affected is on his cheek. Every time I think it's just about to go completely, it seems to re-appear (I do not stop using the creams). Please could you offer some advice. Thank you.

Answer

Ringworm is a fungal infection and a cream containing clotrimazole (an anti-fungal agent) should be able to get rid of it successfully from the face. You say that the ringworm keeps coming back but you don't mention exactly how the patch on your son's cheek changes to make you think that the infection is flaring up. If the skin on the treated area is simply remaining a little redder or browner than the skin around it this may be due to post-inflammatory pigmentation, meaning that where the fungal infection has caused the skin to become inflamed the skin cells may be producing a little extra pigment and this can make the affected skin look a bit darker then the surrounding, normal skin. This problem will usually settle on its own, although it could take many weeks for the darker colour to fade. It does not indicate that the ringworm is coming back.

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If, however, the patch on the cheek keeps becoming red, scaly and itchy it could be that the fungal infection is partially resistant to the cream that you are using, or that it is not a fungal infection at all. There is a form of eczema that can produce red, itchy, circular patches on the skin and sometimes this can be confused with ringworm. If the patch on the cheek is showing these kinds of changes I think you will need to let your GP have a look at it to see exactly what the problem is.

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